their equally united support of such wretched acts as the war on Egypt and that in the Soudan. In our own country our endowed fellow-citizens, the professorial socialists, are a corresponding class. It is the instinct of self-preservation in privileged classes to cringe to power, and to express its sentiments; and when, as in our own day, powerful organizations rise, and, exhibiting a great revulsion toward an ancient form of social organization, seem likely to be in the ascendant, these classes hasten to pay court to the brute force of ignorance and numbers, as in other countries they pay court to the majority of bayonets. It matters not to them that social evolution is a continuous progress toward individual property and rights. It matters not that the English race in England and America have, after centuries of struggle and the sacrifice of countless heroic lives, secured individual immunity from official tyranny. The unprecedented rapidity of our recent advance has favored a reaction, and those last to follow in the wake of progress are the swiftest in retreat. But particular illustrations of this fact are necessary. We might cite the astonishing article of President Seelye in "The Forum," advocating in America the establishment of a national church! But we prefer to select the most prominent of the professorial socialists, whose recent utterances on economic topics are extremely interesting from our present point of view.
Mr. Richard T. Ely's "Introduction to the Labor Problem" is apparently a hastily written paper, and it might be unfair to subject it to any close scrutiny, were it not for the confidence with which the most startling statements are made, and the like carelessness exhibited in his other writings. The following is one of the gems of thought found in the place referred to: "The idea of free governments is to stimulate individual initiative and individual industry, but the consequence is that a few clever or fortunate people—often successful because more unscrupulous than others—restrict the activity of their fellows, and effectually repress the freest expansion of the energies of the people."
In the first place, the idea of free governments is not to "stimulate" anybody or anything, but simply the removal of obstacles in the way of activity, and the use of the word shows a fundamental misconception. Passing this point, however, one might suppose from the above that Russia and China, where Mr. Ely's sociological ideas have full sway, are better situated for a free "expansion of the energies of the people," whereas it need hardly be said that individual initiative is freest and individual industry is most successful where governments interfere least.[1]
"The ethical duties and the holy privileges of a citizen of the republic must be enforced in season and out of season," further remarks Mr. Ely. This luminous dictum is delivered without explanation; and
- ↑ The fact that, since the absorption of the telegraph lines by the British Government, all the improvements have come from America, whereas England had before furnished her full share of them, is a striking illustration.
